And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.
3. in process of time ] Lit. “at the end of days,” a phrase for a period of quite indefinite length; LXX ; Lat. post multos dies.
of the fruit of the ground ] Probably the best, or the earliest, of the fruit, corresponding to the “firstlings” in Abel’s offering. Cf. Num 18:12, “All the best (Heb. fat) of the oil, and all the best (Heb. fat) of the vintage, and of the corn.”
an offering ] Heb. minah, lit. a “gift” or a “present,” as in Gen 32:13, when Jacob sends “a present for Esau his brother,” and in Gen 43:11, where he says unto his sons, “carry the man down a present.” The word is used especially for “a gift” made to God; and with that sense, especially in P and Ezek., of the “meal offering,” cf. Leviticus 2; Lev 6:7-10. Here it is used of “offerings to God” generally, both of animals and of the fruits of the earth.
This is the first mention of sacrifice in Scripture. Its origin is not explained, nor is an altar mentioned. Man is assumed to be by nature endowed with religious instincts, and capable of holding converse with God. Worship was man’s mode of approach to the Deity; and sacrifice was its outward expression. The purpose of the offering was (1) propitiatory, to win favour, or to avert displeasure; and (2) eucharistic, in expression of gratitude for blessings on home or industry. It was deemed wrong to approach God with empty hands, that is, without an offering or gift, Exo 23:15; Exo 25:30.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 3. In process of time] mikkets yamim, at the end of days. Some think the anniversary of the creation to be here intended; it is more probable that it means the Sabbath, on which Adam and his family undoubtedly offered oblations to God, as the Divine worship was certainly instituted, and no doubt the Sabbath properly observed in that family. This worship was, in its original institution, very simple. It appears to have consisted of two parts:
1. Thanksgiving to God as the author and dispenser of all the bounties of nature, and oblations indicative of that gratitude.
2. Piacular sacrifices to his justice and holiness, implying a conviction of their own sinfulness, confession of transgression, and faith in the promised Deliverer. If we collate the passage here with the apostle’s allusion to it, Heb 11:4, we shall see cause to form this conclusion.
Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering] minchah, unto the Lord. The word minchah is explained, Le 2:1, &c., to be an offering of fine flour, with oil and frankincense. It was in general a eucharistic or gratitude offering, and is simply what is implied in the fruits of the ground brought by Cain to the Lord, by which he testified his belief in him as the Lord of the universe, and the dispenser of secular blessings.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Either,
1. In general, at the return of the set time then appointed, and used for the solemn service of God. Or,
2. At the end of the year, when there might be now, as there was afterward among the Jews, more solemn worship and sacrifices; the word days being often put for a year, as Lev 25:29; 1Sa 1:3; 27:7. Or,
3. More probably at the end of the days of the week, or upon the seventh and last day of the week, Saturday, which then was the sabbath day, which before this time was blessed and sanctified, Gen 2:3.
Cain brought an offering, either to the place appointed for the solemn worship of God, or to his father, who at that time was both king, and prophet, and priest. Or brought, i.e. offered.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. in process of timeHebrew,“at the end of days,” probably on the Sabbath.
brought . . . an offeringunto the LordBoth manifested, by the very act of offering,their faith in the being of God and in His claims to their reverenceand worship; and had the kind of offering been left to themselves,what more natural than that the one should bring “of the fruitsof the ground,” and that the other should bring “of thefirstlings of his flock and the fat thereof” [Ge4:4].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And in process of time it came to pass,…. Or “at the end of days” c; which some understand of the end of seven days, at the end of the week, or on the seventh day, which they suppose to be the sabbath day, these sons of Adam brought their offerings to the Lord: but this proceeds upon an hypothesis not sufficiently established, that the seventh day sabbath was now appointed to be observed in a religious way; rather, according to Aben Ezra, it was at the end of the year; So “after days” in Jud 11:4 is meant after a year; and which we there render, as here, “in process of time”. This might be after harvest, after the fruits of the earth were gathered in, and so a proper season to bring an offering to the Lord, in gratitude for the plenty of good things they had been favoured with; as in later times, with the Israelites, there was a feast for the ingathering of the fruits of the earth, Ex 23:16. The Targum of Jonathan fixes this time to the fourteenth of Nisan, as if it was the time of the passover, a feast instituted two thousand years after this time, or thereabout; and very stupidly one of the Jewish writers d observes, that
“the night of the feast of the passover came, and Adam said to his sons, on this night the Israelites will bring the offerings of the passovers, offer ye also before your Creator.”
That Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord; corn, herbs, seeds, c. the Targum of Jonathan says it was flax seed so Jarchi makes mention of an “agadah” or exposition, which gives the same sense; and another of their writers e observes, that Cain brought what was left of his food, or light and trifling things, flax or hemp seed. This he brought either to his father, as some think, being priest in his family; or rather he brought and offered it himself at the place appointed for religious worship, and for sacrifices; so Aben Ezra, he brought it to the place fixed for his oratory. It is highly probable it was at the east of the entrance of the garden of Eden, where the Shechinah, or the divine Majesty, was, and appeared in some remarkable manner.
c “in fine dierum”, Pagninus, Montanus; “a fine dierum”, Schmidt. d Pirke Eliezer, c. 21. e Ib. Vid. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 8. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. 4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: 5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
Here we have, I. The devotions of Cain and Abel. In process of time, when they had made some improvement in their respective callings (Heb. At the end of days, either at the end of the year, when they kept their feast of in-gathering or perhaps an annual fast in remembrance of the fall, or at the end of the days of the week, the seventh day, which was the sabbath)–at some set time, Cain and Abel brought to Adam, as the priest of the family, each of them an offering to the Lord, for the doing of which we have reason to think there was a divine appointment given to Adam, as a token of God’s favour to him and his thoughts of love towards him and his, notwithstanding their apostasy. God would thus try Adam’s faith in the promise and his obedience to the remedial law; he would thus settle a correspondence again between heaven and earth, and give shadows of good things to come. Observe here, 1. That the religious worship of God is no novel invention, but an ancient institution. It is that which was from the beginning (1 John i. 1); it is the good old way, Jer. vi. 16. The city of our God is indeed that joyous city whose antiquity is of ancient days, Isa. xxiii. 7. Truth got the start of error, and piety of profaneness. 2. That is a good thing for children to be well taught when they are young, and trained up betimes in religious services, that when they come to be capable of acting for themselves they may, of their own accord, bring an offering to God. In this nurture of the Lord parents must bring up their children, Gen 18:19; Eph 6:4. 3. That we should every one of us honour God with what we have, according as he has prospered us. According as their employments and possessions were, so they brought their offering. See 1Co 16:1; 1Co 16:2. Our merchandize and our hire, whatever they are, must be holiness to the Lord, Isa. xxiii. 18. He must have his dues of it in works of piety and charity, the support of religion and the relief of the poor. Thus we must now bring our offering with an upright heart; and with such sacrifices God is well pleased. 4. That hypocrites and evil doers may be found going as far as the best of God’s people in the external services of religion. Cain brought an offering with Abel; nay, Cain’s offering is mentioned first, as if he were the more forward of the two. A hypocrite may possibly hear as many sermons, say as many prayers, and give as much alms, as a good Christian, and yet, for want of sincerity, come short of acceptance with God. The Pharisee and the publican went to the temple to pray, Luke xviii. 10.
II. The different success of their devotions. That which is to be aimed at in all acts of religion is God’s acceptance: we speed well if we attain this, but in vain do we worship if we miss of it, 2 Cor. v. 9. Perhaps, to a stander-by, the sacrifices of Cain and Abel would have seemed both alike good. Adam accepted them both, but God, who sees not as man sees, did not. God had respect to Abel and to his offering, and showed his acceptance of it, probably by fire from heaven; but to Cain and his offering he had not respect. We are sure there was a good reason for this difference; the Governor of the world, though an absolute sovereign, does not act arbitrarily in dispensing his smiles and frowns.
1. There was a difference in the characters of the persons offering. Cain was a wicked man, led a bad life, under the reigning power of the world and the flesh; and therefore his sacrifice was an abomination to the Lord (Prov. xv. 8); a vain oblation, Isa. i. 13. God had no respect to Cain himself, and therefore no respect to his offering, as the manner of the expression intimates. But Abel was a righteous man; he is called righteous Abel (Matt. xxiii. 35); his heart was upright and his life was pious; he was one of those whom God’s countenance beholds (Ps. xi. 7) and whose prayer is therefore his delight, Prov. xv. 8. God had respect to him as a holy man, and therefore to his offering as a holy offering. The tree must be good, else the fruit cannot be pleasing to the heart-searching God.
2. There was a difference in the offerings they brought. It is expressly said (Heb. xi. 4), Abel’s was a more excellent sacrifice than Cain’s: either, (1.) In the nature of it. Cain’s was only a sacrifice of acknowledgment offered to the Creator; the meat-offerings of the fruit of the ground were no more, and, for aught I know, they might be offered in innocency. But Abel brought a sacrifice of atonement, the blood whereof was shed in order to remission, thereby owning himself a sinner, deprecating God’s wrath, and imploring his favour in a Mediator. Or, (2.) In the qualities of the offering. Cain brought of the fruit of the ground, any thing that came next to hand, what he had not occasion for himself or what was not marketable. But Abel was curious in the choice of his offering: not the lame, nor the lean, nor the refuse, but the firstlings of the flock–the best he had, and the fat thereof–the best of those best. Hence the Hebrew doctors give it for a general rule that every thing that is for the name of the good God must be the goodliest and best. It is fit that he who is the first and best should have the first and best of our time, strength, and service.
3. The great difference was this, that Abel offered in faith, and Cain did not. There was a difference in the principle upon which they went. Abel offered with an eye to God’s will as his rule, and God’s glory as his end, and in dependence upon the promise of a Redeemer; but Cain did what he did only for company’s sake, or to save his credit, not in faith, and so it turned into sin to him. Abel was a penitent believer, like the publican that went away justified: Cain was unhumbled; his confidence was within himself; he was like the Pharisee who glorified himself, but was not so much as justified before God.
III. Cain’s displeasure at the difference God made between his sacrifice and Abel’s. Cain was very wroth, which presently appeared in his very looks, for his countenance fell, which bespeaks not so much his grief and discontent as his malice and rage. His sullen churlish countenance, and a down-look, betrayed his passionate resentments: he carried ill-nature in his face, and the show of his countenance witnessed against him. This anger bespeaks, 1. His enmity to God, and the indignation he had conceived against him for making such a difference between his offering and his brother’s. He should have been angry at himself for his own infidelity and hypocrisy, by which he had forfeited God’s acceptance; and his countenance should have fallen in repentance and holy shame, as the publican’s, who would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, Luke xviii. 13. But, instead of this, he flies out against God, as if he were partial and unfair in distributing his smiles and frowns, and as if he had done him a deal of wrong. Note, It is a certain sign of an unhumbled heart to quarrel with those rebukes which we have, by our own sin, brought upon ourselves. The foolishness of man perverteth his way, and then, to make bad worse, his heart fretteth against the Lord, Prov. xix. 3. 2. His envy of his brother, who had the honour to be publicly owned. Though his brother had no thought of having any slur put upon him, nor did now insult over him to provoke him, yet he conceived a hatred of him as an enemy, or, which is equivalent, a rival. Note, (1.) It is common for those who have rendered themselves unworthy of God’s favour by their presumptuous sins to have indignation against those who are dignified and distinguished by it. The Pharisees walked in this way of Cain, when they neither entered into the kingdom of God themselves nor suffered those that were entering to go in, Luke xi. 52. Their eye is evil, because their master’s eye and the eye of their fellow-servants are good. (2.) Envy is a sin that commonly carries with it both its own discovery, in the paleness of the looks, and its own punishment, in the rottenness of the bones.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
PARADISE REOPENED
I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel (Gen 3:15).
So He drove out the man, and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden a cherubim and the flame of a sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life (Gen 3:24).
And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground, an offering unto Jehovah, and Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof (Gen 4:3-4).
SOMETIME since I talked to you for an hour on Paradise Lost of the Greatest Sin of the Centuries. It was a scandalous procedure, the heated season considered. Tonight I want to speak to you for thirty minutes and no more, on Paradise Reopened.
The opening chapters of Genesis present events after the manner of the moving pictures. Your eyes scarcely rest upon one statement until another has supplanted it, and the period intervening between the events may be as easily a millennium as a moment. Unquestionably God was ages upon ages building the world. And yet when this brief report of His work is read, it sounds as if He accomplished it all in a week while the record of creation in Gen 1:1 is as if perfected by an act of the will. The same movement is carried into the third and fourth chapters of Genesis. How long a time intervened between the moment when Paradise was lost and that in which God gave some promise of restoration to our despairing first parents, we cannot know. The one thing of which we may feel fairly certain is thisthat quite a time elapsed. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. It is not His present custom to follow acts of rebellion against Himself with instant pardon. He takes time, for the work of the Spirit is conviction. He grants the rebel time to meditate upon his iniquity, and time for genuine repentance. The sight of tears does not stir Him to instant speech, for He knows that the more deeply the soul is moved over its sin, the longer time it spends in despair of pardon, the sweeter will be the release when once it is spoken.
I am confident that days, and possibly weeks, if not months, went by between the moment when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, and that in which God gave them promise of deliverance; between the hour when Paradise was lost, and that blessed moment when God reopened it again. This reopening rests in the three texts selected for this discourse.
It was prophesied in Gen 3:15; it was consummated in Gen 3:24, and it was appropriated in Gen 4:4.
THE REOPENING PROPHESIED.
In the curse pronounced upon the agent of sin.
And Jehovah God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou above all cattle and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life; and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; he shall bruise thy head.
Men may say what they please about this affliction upon the Adversarys agent, but any kind of justice demands that, always and everywhere. It may be true that every sin originates in Satans mind, but the moment a man adopts his suggestion, and becomes his agent for its execution, he puts himself in the way of the curse. It was Satan who entered into Judas, and prompted him to betray his Lord, but Judas could not escape the consequences of his evilly-inspired act. It will be Satan who will enter into the Anti-Christ, and suggest all his devilish endeavors, but the Anti-Christ must himself go into the pit with the Beast and the False Prophet.
Last week an old man entered our state penitentiary who had long been a most respected citizen in the place where he dwelt and had held an office of special responsibility and peculiar honor. There came a time when Satan tempted him to violate the eighth commandment, Thou shalt not steal, and when the prison bars closed behind him, he went sobbing his way to his cell, to begin a penal servitude of eight years. He was but experiencing the curse that must come upon the beast or man who consents to be Satans agent. There never was a man so erect but sin could bring him down; so strong but this same transgression could compel him to crawl as the serpent; or so cultured that its commission would not compel him to bite the dust.
In the war declared against the author of sin!
I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed.
It is a remarkable thing, that so far as mans knowledge goes, there has never been a truce in this war. There is not a serpent that crawls the earth but is hated by all natural men and all natural women. The moment man or woman reveals another disposition and shows friendliness to the poison-fanged creature, we feel that such a person is uncanny, unmanned, unwomaned! Who ever believed that such were not themselves leagued with the Adversary and hence at peace with his first agent? And if this war is to go on, while time lasts, with the bestial agent of sin, is there ever to be a truce with the author himself, that old serpent, Satan? Nay, verily! In not a foot of earth has he a right; in not a nook of the mind nor corner of the heart.
Paul was troubled to find that he had any possession in him and grieved, saying, I am carnal, sold under sin. His cry was, Wretched man that I am; who shall deliver me out of the body of this death? He speaks of his experience as a fight against this adversary, saying, I have fought a good fight. He enjoins upon Timothy, Fight the good fight of faith. He writes to the Hebrews, But call to remembrance the former days, in which after you were illuminated ye endured a great fight.
A few years since General Maximo Gomez wrote to General Blanco, Spains commander, asking why he had come to Cuba and reminding him he could neither exterminate nor conquer the people of that land, saying at the conclusion of his letter, Victory always crowns those who fight for justice, he followed his letter with his sword; and never laid down the latter until the enemy was vanquished. But the recovery , of Paradise requires a more royal battle. A few years and Spain the oppressor was defeated, but our Adversary has held his way through millenniums and his oppressions increase.
In the promise of Christ as Satans Conqueror. He shall bruise thy head. R. J. Campbell thinks that this reference in Gen 3:16 is not to the coming Christ. That only proves that he is not among the prophets. For Moses and all the prophets believed that this was the prophecy of the coming Christ, and the conquering Christ. Paul was familiar with it and when he was writing to the Romans he said, The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. As the members of Christs body they shared in this conquest.
I heard a man say, not long since, that Milton, in Paradise Regained, made a mistake in putting the recovery of Paradise in the fourth chapter of Matthew; but a more careful reading of Milton shows that he did not so locate this event. Speaking of Christs victory over temptation in the wilderness, Milton says,
There He shall first lay down the rudiments
Of His great warfare, ere I sent Him forth
To conquer sin and death, the two grand foes
By humiliation and strong sufferance.
His weakness shall oercome satanic strength,
And all the world and mass of sinful flesh;
That all the angels and ethereal powers,
They now, and man hereafter, may discern
From what consummate virtue, I have chose
This perfect man, by merit calld my
Son To earn salvation for the sons of men.
There is no more interesting study conceivable than that of Christ as Conqueror. He conquered prejudice, the strongest passion of the Jew. He conquered pride, the enemy of the Greek. At His touch sickness surrendered; before His face, leprosy fled. At His word, death yielded, and He who humiliated the proud, healed the sick, cleansed the lepers, raised the dead, is the very same of whom it is promised that He shall reign until he hath put all enemies under His feet; yea, the arch-enemy, Satan himself, shall feel that holy hand at his evil throat, and being bound, shall be cast for a thousand years into the abyss which the conquering Christ shall shut and seal, that Satan should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years shall be finished. Aye more, eventually that same hand shall hurl him into the lake of fire and brimstone, where also are the beast and false prophet, and they shall be tormented day and night, forever and ever.
Alexander Maclaren reminds us that while man is unable to conquer the least of his sins, Gods own Son is adequate to the greatest of them. He came down from heaven like an athlete ascending into the arena to fight with and overcome the grim wild beastsour passions and our sins, and trusting to Him, by His power and life within us, we may conquer. They that follow Him shall trample on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the adder they shall trample under foot.
THE REOPENING CONSUMMATED.
So He drove out the man, and placed at the east of the garden of Eden a cherubim, and a flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life (Gen 3:24).
Bible readers commonly interpret this to mean the last act in excluding Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden! Quite to the contrary, it is the first act in reopening Paradise.
Gods pity is evidenced in the dispossession of Eden. The text says,
Behold, man has become as one of us, to know good and evil, and now, lest he put forth his hand and take of the tree of life, and eat and live forever,
therefore Jehovah God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden. The tree of life seemed to have had power to confirm a man in whatsoever state he was; to take of it when one was innocent is to be confirmed in innocence; to partake of it when one is in sin is to be confirmed in sin. God drove Adam from Eden lest he should eat and become an immortal sinner. The worst estate to which a man can come is to that consummation of sin.
We may grieve over a man who has been drunken once, and feel the shame of his transgression, but our grief will be assuaged by the hope that he will not repeat it, but when a man has been drunken a thousand times, that hope dies and we feel the awfulness of his disaster. We may grieve over the lad who has been found once at a gambling table, but we despair of the man who has followed it for years. The woman who has made one misstep may be recovered, but when she who is tempted has become confirmed in her sin and has turned temptress, we despair.
The Bible seems to teach that death does for men in sin what the tree of life would have accomplished for Adam, had he in impenitence tasted the same, and so John has penned in his Epistle concerning its confirming power, There is a sin unto death, I do not say that he shall pray for it. The father who finds his boy lifting the goblet to his lips and strikes the damning liquid from his hand, is doing for him in a small measure what God did for Adam when He dismissed him from the place of the tree of life. To be confirmed in sin is Hell!
The cherubim are the expression of Gods truce with the penitent. They were not put at the gate of Eden to keep men out, but to invite men back. Any good student of the Scriptures will note that the cherubim not only stood at each end of the mercy seat, but they were made of one piece with it. Their eyes were also full upon it; their wings covered the mercy seat. What is the significance? It is the Old Testament declaration of salvation by grace. That salvation was symbolized by these cherubim. The God of justice who exercised justice in driving Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden, is also the God of mercy who prepares a way for their return in holiness, their repented sins having been put away. The mercy seat is the revelation of the Divine heart. That mercy seat is between the cherubim. The Lord thy God is a merciful God, is the statement of Moses (Deu 4:31). Thou art a gracious and merciful God, is the testimony of Nehemiah (Neh 9:31). Unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy, is the Psalmists loving cry, and His mercy endureth forever. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great mercy. Ezekiel in his lamentations, declares it is of the Lords mercy that we are not consumed, because His mercies fail not. Daniel joyfully boasts, To the Lord our God belongs mercies and forgiveness (Dan. p: 9). Isaiah has called upon the sinner to hope, Let the wicked man forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return unto the Lord and He will have mercy upon him, unto our God for He will abundantly pardon.
This flame is the revelation of the Fathers face.
And the flame of the sword which turned every way to keep the way of the Tree of Life.
It is not a sword to cut off the way of men who would come to the tree of life, but it is a sword flame, revealing the Fathers face to those who seek the tree of life. No less an authority than Dr.
William Smith, revised by Professors Hackett and Abbott, consents in his dictionary that this flame is the shekinah, admitting that this is the earliest notice of that glorious appearance, under the symbol of the pointed flame and constituting that local presence of the Lord from which Cain went forth, and before which the worship of Adam and succeeding patriarchs was performed. It is fitting, indeed, that God should manifest Himself to sinful men in the form of flame; fire consumes dross and refines true gold.
The genuine man has no need to fear the God who reveals Himself by fire, but woe to the hypocrite who attempts to pass that way. God used to reveal Himself by fire when the burnt offering was consumed, and when all the people saw it they shouted and fell on their faces. On the day of Pentecost, fire, in the form of swords or tongues, sat upon the disciples, and they were at once approved and empowered. Yet, when our works are brought into this glorious presence, those of them that are self-centered are consumed away, while those that are Spirit-prompted are glorified.
THE REOPENING APPROPRIATED.
Abel employed it. He came in the way appointed for propitiation. A man who would approach the presence signified by a flame must first have put his sins away. Apparently from the day of the promise that the seed of woman was to bruise the serpents heel, God foretells His coming by the bloody offering. The life of the bullock or of the he-goat, was taken. As he died, Abel saw the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and understood that God was making the atonement for sin. It is a strange thing that men should object to this, and call it the shambles theory of salvation. Shambles they were indeed, but of what did they speak? Not so much of an innocent animal suffering for a guilty man, as they did of a just God, enduring mans cross that He might by His own affliction win men to holiness again. When did you ever hear a father condemned for having laid down his life in defense of his family? How much greater is his virtue if that family has shown itself unworthy of his love, having been in rebellion against his will.
You will remember, in The Sky Pilot, that Ralph Connor gives a beautiful interpretation of Pauls speech in Rom 9:3. The Pilot was reading one night to Bill and the group about him. He seemed to be serious, this Bill whom we all learned to love so much, and they came across this word, Brethren, I could wish myself accursed from Christ for my brethrens sake. What does it mean, asked the Pilot. They thought a moment; one tried, and then another, and Bill said this, Why it meansit means he would go to hell for em. And Connor says, We must not be shocked; that was the exact meaning of the word. Paul would go to hell to save his kinspeople. But I bring you a more wonderful message. God went to hell in the person of Jesus Christ, that men might be saved. I believe that the Psalmist means to suggest the agony of hell Christ suffered, and if so He suffered it for our sakes. Where in all the world outside of the Bible was such a plan of salvation conceived as this plan, this plan of a crucified Son of God!
Again, Abel discovered without the shedding of blood there is no remission. Charles Spurgeon reminds us that in the Old Testament account of it a man who was too poor to bring two turtle doves then he that sinned should bring for his offering the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering (Lev 5:11). This was that no man might be condemned because he was poor and of himself incapable! God does not ask what we have not! Being in mercy rich toward all men, He has provided an offering for all men, that is His own Son, slain from the foundation of the world. Is it then too much to ask that men should accept the offering which God has provided without expense to them? Is it too much that this evidence of Divine goodness should lead them to repentance for sin and beget within them an eternal loyalty to the Saviour?
Again, it is written, The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. Cain did not believe it; he trusted to the fruits of his own labor for his salvation, and God refused him. The principle was as certainly established then as now. For the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight. The man who would not have Gods way back in the garden of Eden would not find his way accepted. There is no other name given under heaven whereby ye must be saved except the name of Jesus Christ. There is no cleansing element but the blood of Christ. There is no access to the tree of life except by the way of the tree upon which He hung. As for me, I want no other way; and, no man could have a better.
It was March and midnight. The air was full of driving sleet, and the streets were vacant. Not even the form of a policeman broke the monotony of slippery pavement glittering under the waving shadows of the electric lights. Presently a boyish form emerged from a dark corner and crept slowly up the steps of a corner house. It was a large, handsome residence, not utterly dark and quiet. What business had one to creep stealthily into that house at that hour? Was the boy a burglar?
He fumbled in his pocket and drew forth a tiny key. Yes, it opened the door; he stood within. The hall was dark but warm. He moved eagerly to the register; he seemed to know just where to find it; and crouched shivering over its heat.
After some moments he started up the stairs, O, so carefully, lest he make a sound; but the steps were padded and carpeted and his old wet shoes sank into them noiselessly. At the head of the stairs he felt his way to the door. It was closed, and he hesitated, leaning against the frame and breathing heavily. At last he laid his hand on the knob, and turned it a little. Was the door locked? No, it swung open quietly and he stepped in.
The street light shone upon the dainty bed all made up and turned open, ready for an occupant. A dressing gown hung on a chair near the bed, and a pair of slippers stood before it. The rest of the room was in darkness. The boy gave a great sob and fell on his knees by the bedside.
No, he was not a burglar, only a sick boy stealing home under cover of the night. It was nearly two years since he had knelt by that bed. His mother had died; he had thought his father stem and cold and he had run away to live as he chose. Once in his miserable wanderings a much-forwarded letter from home had reached him. It contained no writing, just a tiny latch-key to the home door. For months the little key had burned as it lay in his pocket. It had reminded him of the Saviour whom his mother trusted, and in the time of his deepest distress he had said, I will trust Him. Still he was afraid; but the little key had still lain in his pocket and at last had drawn him home.
The next morning the father opened his sons door, as he had done every day since the key had been sent. He expected nothing, but it had become a habit. Did his eyes deceive him? No, it was true! Ralph was in the bed, asleep. The face was thin and haggard, but it was Ralphs! The father fell on his knees and the boy opened his eyes.
Oh, father, he sobbed, Ive come home to die. Ive been wicked, wicked. Can you forgive me? Oh, my son, indeed I can. And Godhave you asked His forgiveness?
Yes, and I wanted to tell you before I die.
Die! exclaimed the father, gathering him into his arms. No, indeed.
The doctor at the hospital said that I would not live long.
Well see about that, replied the father stepping to the phone.
When the family physician looked Ralph over he smiled. The Hospital doctor knew that you had little chance, wandering about with no care, he said, but well send you off to Florida and if you lead a sensible, pure life, youll live to be the stay of your fathers old age.
When the physician had gone Ralph turned to his father. Im so glad you sent the latchkey. I never would have come home by daylight, but when I was out in the cold, wet night, I could not resist the comfort at the end of that key.
It was God who gave me the thought, my boy. I asked Him what to do.
Our lesson is Gods latchkey to all who are exiles from Him. It will fit in the gate of Paradise. Use it tonight and come home!
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
CRITICAL NOTES.
Gen. 4:7. Sin lieth at the door.] Rather: A sin-offering is crouching at the door, or (more generally) opening: e.g. at the opening, or entrance, of thy brothers fold. This exegesis supplies a point of departure for the words which immediately follow, and which otherwise seem exceedingly abrupt. The connecting link may be shown by the following paraphrase:Though, in order to do well, thou must needs own thyself a sinner, and be indebted to thy brother for a sin-offering out of his fold; yet this will not destroy thy rights as firstborn: NOTWITHSTANDING, TO THEE shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. Let not pride, therefore, deter thee from this betterthis only properway. Let no obstinacy, no groundless fears, keep thee from thus doing well. Much has been written on this passage, and many are the views of it that have been propounded; but, without dogmatising, we may express our pretty confident persuasion that no exposition so fully meets the case as the above.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Gen. 4:3-8
THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIPPER OF GOD
I. That both the True and the False amongst Men are apparently Worshippers of God. Both Cain and Abel came to worship God. The false come to worship God.
1. Because it is the custom of the land so to do. The sabbath morning dawns, and the world of mankind awakes to the religious service of the day. All classes and conditions of men are seen wending their way to the temple of God. They reverence not the day. They join not heartily in its worship. They are the slaves of custom. They are the creatures of habit. Hence you cannot distinguish the moral character of men by the mere fact of worship. Attendance to the outward ceremonial of religion is not an infallible index to their piety or heavenly aspirations.
2. Because men feel that they must pay some regard to social propriety and conscience. Men would feel if they did not bring the first fruits of their religious service to God that they were little better than heathens. This to them is a social propriety. They would not disgrace their characters by an avowed neglect of the sabbath, or by a rejection of all moral worship. They always attend church once a day. This is their sabbath etiquette. This silences their conscience, preserves their reputation, and constitutes them moral and respectable people. Hence they bring their firstlings to the Lord. These are the false worshippers of God, and with them the sanctuaries of the world are crowded. They are Cainites.
3. Because men feel that their souls are drawn out to God in ardent longings and grateful praises. These are the true worshippers of God. They are in the minority. They are followers of Abel. They gladly welcome all the means of grace. They joyfully present their firstlings to the Lord. They come to God in his appointed way. They are animated by the true spirit of devotion.
II. That both the True and the False amongst men present their material offerings to God. Cain and Abel not merely came together to worship God, but they also brought of their substance to the Lord. Cain brought of the fruit of the ground. Abel brought the firstlings of his flock.
1. The trade of each brother suggested his offering. This was most natural. The trades, the temperaments, and the abilities of men, generally determine their kind of religious service and devotion. The men of great intellect will take to God the firstlings of a splendid literature. The man of great emotion will take to God the offerings of an enthusiastic prayer. The man of great wealth will take silver and gold. The man of leisure will give his time. The man of genius will give his originality. The poor man will give himself. Hence there are few men who neglect to give some offering to the Lord.
(1.) Some take their offerings for parade. They never take small offerings that can be concealed. Their offerings always go in droves, that men may see them, admire them, and inquire about them. They have no true piety to inspire society with respect, hence they substitute ostentation, and a pretence of goodness in its place. They will give ten thousand pounds to build a church, when privately they would not give ten shillings to save a soul.
(2.) They take their offerings to enhance their trade. They want to be known as great church goers, as men of benevolent disposition. Thus they hope to increase their financial returns, and to strengthen their business relationships. Their offerings to God are nothing more than investments for themselves.
(3.) They take their offerings to increase their social influence.
(4.) They take their offerings with a humble desire to glorify God. These are the offerings of a true manhood. They are the outcome of a penitent soul. They only are acceptable to heaven. Thus as you cannot estimate the moral character of a man by his worship, neither can you by the material offerings he presents to the Lord.
III. That both the true and the false amongst men are observed and estimated by God in their worship and offerings.
1. The worship and offerings of the one are accepted. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and his offering. And why:
(1.) Because it was well and carefully selected. Men should select carefully the offerings they give to God.
(2.) Because it was the best he could command. He brought the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. When men are searching their flocks for the Lords offering, they generally take the poorest they can find. The threepenny piece is enough.
(3.) Because it was appropriate His sacrifice preached the gospel, foreshadowed the cross.
(4.) Because it was offered in a right spirit. This makes the great point of difference between the two offerings. The grandest offerings given in a wrong spirit will not be accepted by God, whereas the meanest offering given in lowly spirit will be welcome to him. Thus the younger brother was the best. He was better than his name.
(2.) The worship and offering of the other was rejected. But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. The men who make their religious offerings a parade, who regard this worship as a form, are not welcomed by God.
IV. That the true, in the Divine reception of their worship and offerings, are often envied by the false.
1. This envy is wrathful. Why art thou wrath.
2. This envy is apparent. Why is thy countenance fallen.
3. This envy is unreasonable. If thou doest well, shalt thou be accepted.
4. This envy is murderous. Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Gen. 4:3. Sin, however it made man apostate from God, did not extinguish his worship of God.
God and nature teach parents to nurture children in the religion of God.
Set and stated times there have been for Gods worship from the beginning. The Sabbath.
From the fall of man God did teach their recovery by sacrifice.
Wicked ones, even the children of the devil, have made show of religion from the fall.
Hypocrites come without blood, even without sense of their own deserts and self-abasement, to serve God.
Sincere worshippers have been in the Church of God from the beginning.
THE SACRIFICES OF THE ANCIENT DISPENSATION
Gen. 4:4.
I. That from the earliest times, the only way of acceptable worship has been by sacrifice. It is impossible to account for the origin and prevalence of sacrifice, but upon the principle of divine appointment. We cannot suppose that this offering of Abel, so highly approved, was uncommanded. Analogy against it. In subsequent times God appointed the whole Jewish ritual. Tabernacle was erected after His pattern. It is not likely that God would leave fallen man without direction in this matter. There is no natural connection, to the eye of reason, between the sacrifice of a brute and the forgiveness of a sinner. Without shedding of blood is no remission.
II. The sacrifice which God accepts must be offered upon principles which God will approve. Abel gave of the firstlings. He offered his sacrifice in faithin obedience to a divine institutionin dependence upon divine promisein the exercise of devout affections. A better sacrifice than Cainbetter as to the substance, better as to the feeling. Cain considered God as Creator, but Abel as Redeemer.
III. The order of divine procedure is to accept, first the person, and then the offering. The Lord had respect to Abel and his offering. Man first regards the gifts, and then the person according to the gifts, but God the contrary. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.
IV. The commencement of sacrifice with mans sin, and the consummation of sacrifice in a Saviours death, plainly show that a system of atonement is incorporated with the whole train of Divine dispensation.
1. How important to ascertain our interest in the great sacrifice.
2. That the church on earth has always presented a mixed company, and has always been in a militant state. Cain worshipped in form, Abel in truth. The sheep and the goats, the wheat and the tares, will always be mingled till judgment.
3. How singular is the fact that the first man who died, died a martyr.
4. Let us all learn to scrutinize our motives in religious worship, as we know that God strictly observes them. He is not a Christian who is one outwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart.(The Evangelist.)
Strange to say that the worship of God was the first occasion of difference amongst men.
God does not accept men according to the priority of their earthly birth.
Persons are accepted before duties can be.
No work of man can of itself find favour with God.
HISTORY OF CAIN AS A BEACON
Gen. 4:5.
I. That he was the first-born of the family of man. Who can describe the anxiety and wonder which his birth would produce? The birth of any child is both an interesting and momentous event; but the first, how especially so!
II. He was a worshipper of the true God. We know nothing of the history of his childhood. He recognised:
1. Proprietorship of God;
2. Bounty of God in His gifts;
3. His right to our homage. These were right. He was defective in faith.
III. He was distinguished for his industrious labour. Labour is honourablehealthy. It prevents temptations. Satan may tempt the industrious, but the idle tempt him. It is the real wealth of the commonwealth.
IV. He was the subject of the deadly passion of envy. God had respect to Abel, but not to Cain. His pride was wounded. Who can stand before envy. It sees no excellency in another. It corrodes the soul.
V. He was a murderer.
VI. He was an accursed vagabond.
VII. He was the subject of the Divine mercy and long-suffering.(Dr. Burns.)
It is proper for hypocrites to be angry with God about his non-acceptance, but never with themselves for their ill performance.
The contrast between Cain and his brothers:
1. Cain lives and Abel dies.
2. Cains race perishes; the race of Seth continues.
3. Cain the first natural born; Abel the first spiritual born.
The countenance an index to the moral sentiments of the heart.
Gen. 4:6. God takes notice of the wrath of the wicked against His saints, and reproves it.
The anger of Cain was probably in part occasioned by the fear that the acceptance of his younger brother before God, might lead to some infringement of the rights of the firstborn. In the next verse he is assured that this should not be the case.
The relations and duties of social life are not altered by a person being admitted into the family of God.
RELIGION OF NATURE AND THE RELIGION OF THE GOSPEL
Gen. 4:7. Cain and Abel, like Sarah and Hagar, may be allegorized: the former was a fair representative of natural religionists, the father of Deism; the latter the representative of those who embrace revealed religion. Cains religion, in common with many other false religions, had the following characteristics:
1. It was a religion that had in it some good. It acknowledged the existence of Divine Providence, and human obligations. There are no religions, however false, which do not contain some elements of good. The evils far preponderate.
2. It was a religion of expediency. It was assumed to keep up appearances. There was no principle underlying it.
3. It was a religion which lacked faith. It concerned itself about the present, but was utterly blind to the future. No faith, no reality.
4. It was a religion abounding in self-righteousness. It ignored the existence of sin. It ignored the existence of a breach between man and his Creator.
5. It was a persecuting religion. It could tolerate no other views but its own. It soon stained its hands with blood; an example followed in subsequent ages. The religion of God is forbearing, that of man vindictive. Abels religion had also its characteristics:
1. The religion of Abel embodied all the good that was in the other. Whatever is of value in Deism is found in Christianity.
2. It surpassed it even in its own excellencies. There is no mention of Cains being the best of the kind as of Abels. Christianity reveals the truth of Deism with clearer light, and holds them with firmer grasp.
3. It recognised the existence of guilt and its merited doom.
4. It was actuated by faith.
5. It was approved by God.
I. Natural Religion. This consists in doing well. Look at the principle on which it is founded. The principle is practical goodness. This principle is intrinsically excellent. Man was created to do well. It is to be desired that all men should act upon this principle. The world would be different if men were to. No need of policeprison. It is a principle to which none can object. Let us look at the standard by which it is to be tested. The standard is the moral law of creation. In order to do well, man must love God with all his heart, &c. There must be no omission. The act must be perfect. It must be a gem without a flaw. The motive must be good. The rule must be good. It must be done as God directs. Look at the reward, Shalt thou not be accepted? Such a religion will command the approval of the Almighty. It will secure immortality for its votaries. Had Adam continued to do well, he would have continued to live. This, then, is the religion of natureis glorious. Have you performed its requirements? Think of sinits natureits effectsits ultimate consequences. How can we escape them? Ask natural religion. Will she suggest repentance? Will repentance replace things as they wereReformation? This cannot alter the past. An offeringman has none to presentthe mercy of the Eternal? God is merciful, but how can he show it to the sinner, in harmony with justice? Nature has no reply.
II. Revealed Religion. A sin offering lieth at thy door.
1. That revealed religion assumes that men are guilty. If there is no sin, there can be no need of a sin-offering; and if there is a sin-offering, it is presumed that there is sin. Men have not done well. They are sinners. They are liable to punishment.
2. That revealed religion has provided a sin-offering. Three kinds of sacrifices were offered by the Jewseucharisticpeace-offeringsatoning. The last the most prominent. Type of Calvary. In the sin-offering there was a substitution of persona substitution of sufferingsthe acceptance of the sin-offering was accompanied with Divine evidence. This sacrifice is efficient.
3. That this sin-offering reposeth at the door. The atonement of Christ is accessible to the sinnerit rests with man to avail himself of itmen neglect itGod exercises great long-sufferingsinners cannot go to hell without trampling on the sacrifice of the Crossthey will be deprived of exercise if they neglect it.(Homilist.)
Doing well unto God is only effected by faith in the Divine Mediator.
Guilt and judgment come speedily upon the head of the evil-doer.
Outward rule God sometimes gives to wicked ones over His saints.
Gen. 4:8. Gods convictions and reproofs upon the wicked often occasion greater hardness, and rage in sin.
It is usual for wicked men to disemble their rage toward God and His saints.
The simplicity of the saints often makes them a prey to the hypocrisy of the wicked.
Hypocritical enemies, though they be restrained for a time, opportunity reveals them.
Occasion, advantage, and privacy, make discovery of hypocrisy.
Nearest relatives escape not the violence of hypocrites.
The method of Satan is to draw men from envy to murder.
It is not merely from the influence of bad example, as many think, that vice and misery have so abounded in the world: before that could have effect, this crime presents us with as dreadful an instance of malignant passion as any age can afford; and as convincing a proof that it is from withinout of the heart proceed evil thoughts and murders.
THREE EXPERIMENTS AND THREE FAILURES
I. The Family idea wont keep men right. Cain and Abel were brothers.
II. Religious Ceremonial wont keep right. Cain and Abel both offered sacrifice.
III. Religious Persecution wont keep men right. Cain killed his brother, but a voice cried against him. What will keep men right? The love of God through Jesus Christ [City Temple].
THE FIRST MURDER
I. It was the murder of one brother by another. We should have thought that the members of this small family could have lived on amicable terms with each other. We should never have dreamed of murder in their midst. See here:
1. The power of envy.
2. The ambition of selfishness.
3. The quick development of passion.
II. It was occasioned by envy in the religious department of life. The two brothers had each presented their sacrifice; only Abels was accepted. This awakened the envy of Cain. Brothers ought to rejoice in the moral success of each other. Envy in the church is the great cause of strife. Men envy each others talents. They murder each others reputation. They kill many of tender spirit. You can slay your minister by a looka wordas well as by a weapon. Such conduct is:
1. Cruel.
2. Reprehensible.
3. Astonishing.
4. Frequent.
III. That it was avenged by Heaven.
1. By a convicting question.
2. By an alarming curse.
3. By a wandering life.
He, who, according to his mothers hope was to have been the slayer of the serpent, becomes the murderer of his brother. It is well that parents are ignorant of the future of their children, or they would not entertain such bright hopes concerning them in infancy.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(3, 4) In process of time.Heb., at the end of days: not at the end of a week, or a year, or of harvest-time, but of a long indefinite period, shown by the age of Adam at the birth of Seth to have been something less than 130 years.
An offering.Heb., a thank-offering, a present. We must be careful not to introduce here any of the later Levitical ideas about sacrifice. All that we know about this offering is that it was an act of worship, and apparently something usual. Now, each brought of his own produce, and one was accepted and one rejected. Why? Much ingenuity has been wasted on this question, as though Cain erred on technical grounds; whereas we are expressly told in Heb. 11:4 that Abels was the more excellent sacrifice, because offered in faith. It was the state of their hearts that made the difference; though, as the result of unbelief, Cains may have been a scanty present of common produce, and not of first-fruits, while Abel brought firstlings, and of the fat thereof, the choicest portion. Abel may also have shown a deeper faith in the promised Deliverer by offering an animal sacrifice: and certainly the acceptance of his sacrifice quickened among men the belief that the proper way of approaching God was by the death of a victim. But Cains unbloody sacrifice had also a great future before it. It became the minchah of the Levitical law, and under the Christian dispensation is the offering of prayer and praise, and especially the Eucharistic thanksgiving. We have already noticed that Abels sacrifice shows that flesh was probably eaten on solemn occasions. Had animals been killed only for their skins for clothing, repulsive ideas would have been connected with the carcases cast aside to decay; nor would Abel have attached any value to firstlings. But as soon as the rich abundance of Paradise was over, man would quickly learn to eke out the scanty produce of the soil by killing wild animals and the young of his own flocks.
The Lord had respect.Heb., looked upon, showed that He had seen it. It has been supposed that some visible sign of Gods favour was given, and the current idea among the fathers was that fire fell from heaven, and consumed the sacrifice. (Comp. Lev. 9:24.) But there is real irreverence in thus filling up the narrative; and it is enough to know that the brothers were aware that God was pleased with the one and displeased with the other. More important is it to notice, first, that Gods familiar presence was not withdrawn from man after the fall. He talked with Cain as kindly as with Adam of old. And secondly, in these, the earliest, records of mankind religion is built upon love, and the Deity appears as mans personal friend. This negatives the scientific theory that religion grew out of dim fears and terror at natural phenomena, ending gradually in the evolution of the idea of a destructive and dangerous power outside of man, which man must propitiate as best he could.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. In process of time Heb, at the end of days . Of how many days is not specified, and some understand at the end of the year, or at the time of the gathering of fruits; others explain the phrase indefinitely, as our version, or as Keil: “After a considerable lapse of time.” It seems better, however, to understand it of the days of the week that is, at the end of the ordinary and well-known week of seven days. In this sense we have here another trace of the original institution of the Sabbath as a day of worship.
Cain brought of the fruit A most natural offering for a tiller of the ground to bring, and a gift sufficiently proper in itself. But his failure to bring also a bleeding sacrifice may well be looked upon as evidence of a want of faith in the doctrine of sacrifices, and a disposition to substitute what was most convenient to him for all that the law of sacrifice required.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And after a certain amount of time had passed Cain brought to Yahweh an offering of the fruit of the ground.’
The cereal offering was an acknowledgement of God’s blessing and an expression of human gratitude. It would later be quite acceptable to God, so that there is no reason here to assume it was unacceptable here. It was what Cain had laboured for. Why then was it not accepted? The word for ‘offering’ is ‘minchah’ meaning ‘a gift’.
It is noticeable that Cain’s offering is described very blandly in comparison with Abel’s. There is no mention of the first fruits, and it is described as ‘after a passage of time’. Thus there may be a hint that Cain’s offering was somewhat half-hearted. And this gains backing from Gen 4:7 where it is suggested that Cain has not ‘done well’, and has ‘sin crouching at the door’. Certainly there appears to be the idea of a late and careless offering.
However, his not having ‘done well’ may also indicate a number of other factors. It could indicate his not having been so diligent over his work, which would help to explain a possible meagre level of production (see below), and indeed it may relate to his general behaviour and attitude. What seems sure is that the problem was related to Cain’s overall attitude of mind and heart.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Gen 4:3. Brought an offering The words here used are the same with those applied to the legal offerings: iabo, brought, is always used for the sacrifices brought to the door of the tabernacle: and minchah, for an offering or present made to God or man, as a means of appeasing wrath, &c. See Psa 20:3. Accept [or turn to ashes] thy burnt sacrifice, menche. The reader is desired to bear this remark in mind.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
Pro 15:8 ; Psa 11:7 . See, also, particularly, Heb 11:4 , which, at once, proves that Abel knew under what character the promised Seed should come; and, therefore, by faith in that redemption, he brought his offering. Sweet and precious testimony to the truth as it is in Jesus!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Gen 4:3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.
Ver. 3. In process of time. ] That distance of time between the creation and the general flood, Varro, the most learned of the Romans, calleth ‘ A , obscure or unknown, because the heathen had no records of that which we now clearly understand to have been then done, out of the Holy Scriptures.
Cain brought of the fruit.
a Godw. Hebr. Antiq., p. 27.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Genesis
THE GROWTH AND POWER OF SIN
Gen 4:3 – Gen 4:16
Many lessons crowd on us from this section. Its general purport is to show the growth of sin, and its power to part man from man even as it has parted man from God. We may call the whole ‘The beginning of the fatal operations of sin on human society.’
1. The first recorded act of worship occasions the first murder. Is not that only too correct a forecast of the oceans of blood which have been shed in the name of religion, and a striking proof of the subtle power of sin to corrupt even the best, and out of it to make the worst? What a lesson against the bitter hatred which has too often sprung up on so-called religious grounds! No malice is so venomous, no hate so fierce, no cruelty so fiendish, as those which are fed and fanned by religion. Here is the first triumph of sin, that it poisons the very springs of worship, and makes what should be the great uniter of men in sweet and holy bonds their great separator.
2. Sin here appears as having power to bar men’s way to God. Much ingenuity has been spent on the question why Abel’s offering was accepted and Cain’s rejected. But the narrative itself shows in the words of Jehovah, ‘If thou doest well, is there not acceptance?’ that the reason lay in Cain’s evil deeds. So, in 1Jn 3:12 , the fratricide is put down to the fact that ‘his works were evil, and his brother’s righteous’; and Heb 11:4 differs from this view only in making the ground of righteousness prominent, when it ascribes the acceptableness of Abel’s offering to faith. Both these passages are founded on the narrative, and we need not seek farther for the reason of the different reception of the two offerings. Character, then, or, more truly, faith, which is the foundation of a righteous character, determines the acceptableness of worship. Cain’s offering had no sense of dependence, no outgoing of love and trust, no adoration,-though it may have had fear,-and no moral element. So it had no sweet odour for God. Abel’s was sprinkled with some drops of the incense of lowly trust, and came from a heart which fain would be pure; therefore it was a joy to God. So we are taught at the very beginning, that, as is the man, so is his sacrifice; that the prayer of the wicked is an abomination. Plenty of worship nowadays is Cain worship. Many reputable professing Christians bring just such sacrifices. The prayers of such never reach higher than the church ceiling. Of course, the lesson of the story is not that a man must be pure before his sacrifice is accepted. Of course, the faintest cry of trust is heard, and a contrite heart, however sinful, is always welcome. But we are taught that our acts of worship must have our hearts in them, and that it is vain to pray and to love evil. Sin has the awful power of blocking our way to God.
3. Note in one word that we have here at the beginning of human history the solemn distinction which runs through it all. These two, so near in blood, so separate in spirit, head the two classes into which Scripture decisively parts men, especially men who have heard the gospel. It is unfashionable now to draw that broad line between the righteous and the wicked, believers and unbelievers. Sheep and goats are all one. Modern liberal sentiment-so-called-will not consent to such narrowness as the old-fashioned classification. There are none of us black, and none white; we are all different shades of grey. But facts do not quite bear out such amiable views. Perhaps it is not less charitable, and a great deal truer, to draw the line broad and plain, on one side of which is peace and safety, and on the other trouble and death, if only we make it plain that no man need stop one minute on the dark side.
4. The solemn divine voice reads the lesson of the power of sin, when once done, over the sinner. Like a wild beast, it crouches in ambush at his door, ready to spring and devour. The evil deed once committed takes shape, as it were, and waits to seize the doer. Remorse, inward disturbance, and above all, the fatal inclination to repeat sin till it becomes a habit, are set forth with terrible force in these grim figures. What a menagerie of ravenous beasts some of us have at the doors of our hearts! With what murderous longing they glare at us, seeking to fascinate us, and make us their prey! When we sin, we cannot escape the issues; and every wrong thing we do has a kind of horrible life given it, and sits henceforth there, beside us, ready to rend us. The tempting, seducing power of our own evils was never put in more startling and solemnly true words, on which the bitter experience of many a poor victim of his own past is a commentary. The eternal duty of resistance is farther taught by the words. Hope of victory, encouragement to struggle, the assurance that even these savage beasts may be subdued, and the lion and adder the hidden and the glaring evils-those which wound unseen, and which spring with a roar may be overcome, led in a silken leash or charmed into harmlessness, are given in the command, which is also a promise, ‘Rule thou over it.’
5. The deadly fruit of hate is taught us in the brief account of the actual murder. Notice the impressive plainness and fewness of the words. ‘Cain rose up against his brother, and slew him.’ A kind of horror-struck awe of the crime is audible. Observe the emphasis with which ‘his brother’ is repeated in the verse and throughout. Observe, also, the vivid light thrown by the story on the rise and progress of the sin. It begins with envy and jealousy. Cain was not wroth because his offering was rejected. What did he care for that? But what angered him was that his brother had what he had not. So selfishness was at the bottom, and that led on to envy, and that to hatred. Then comes a pause, in which God speaks remonstrances,-as God’s voice-conscience-does now to us all,-between the imagination and the act of evil. A real or a feigned reconciliation is effected. The brothers go in apparent harmony to the field. No new provocation appears, but the old feelings, kept down for a time, come in again with a rush, and Cain is swept away by them. Hatred left to work means murder. The heart is the source of all evil. Selfishness is the mother tincture out of which all sorts of sin can be made. Guard the thoughts, and keep down self, and the deeds will take care of themselves.
6. Mark how close on the heels of sin God’s question treads! How God spoke, we know not. Doubtless in some fashion suited to the needs of Cain. But He speaks to us as really as to him, and no sooner is the rush of passion over, and the bad deed done, than a revulsion comes. What we call conscience asks the question in stern tones, which make a man’s flesh creep. Our sin is like touching the electric bells which people sometimes put on their windows to give notice of thieves. As soon as we step beyond the line of duty we set the alarm going, and it wakens the sleeping conscience. Some of us go so far as to have silenced the voice within; but, for the most part, it speaks immediately after we have gratified our inclinations wrongly.
7. Cain’s defiant answer teaches us how a man hardens himself against God’s voice. It also shows us how intensely selfish all sin is, and how weakly foolish its excuses are. It is sin which has rent men apart from men, and made them deny the very idea that they have duties to all men. The first sin was only against God; the second was against God and man. The first sin did not break, though it saddened, human love; the second kindled the flames of infernal hatred, and caused the first drops to flow of the torrents of blood which have soaked the earth. When men break away from God, they will soon murder one another.
Cain was his brother’s keeper. His question answered itself. If Abel was his brother, then he was bound to look after him. His self-condemning excuse is but a specimen of the shallow pleas by which the forgetfulness of duties we owe to all mankind, and all sins, are defended.
8. The stern sentence is next pronounced. First we have the grand figure of the innocent blood having a voice which pierces the heavens. That teaches in the most forcible way the truth that God knows the crimes done by ‘man’s inhumanity to man,’ even when the meek sufferers are silent. According to the fine old legend of the cranes of Ibycus, a bird of the air will carry the matter. It speaks, too, of God’s tender regard for His saints, whose blood is precious in His sight; and it teaches that He will surely requite. We cannot but think of the innocent blood shed on Calvary, of the Brother of us all, whose sacrifice was accepted of God. His blood, too, crieth from the ground, has a voice which speaks in the ear of God, but not to plead for vengeance, but pardon.
‘Jesus’ blood through earth and skies,
Mercy, free, boundless mercy, cries.’
The doom of wandering, which would be compulsory by reason of the earth’s barrenness, is a parable. The murderer is hunted from place to place, as the Greek fable has it, by the furies, who suffer him not to rest. Conscience drives a man ‘through dry places, seeking rest, and finding none.’ All sin makes us homeless wanderers. There is but one home for the heart, one place of repose for a man, namely, in the heart of God, the secret place of the Most High; and he who, for his sin, durst not enter there, is driven forth into ‘a salt land and not inhabited,’ and has to wander wearily there. The legend of the wandering Jew, and that other of the sailor, condemned for ever to fly before the gale through stormy seas, have in them a deep truth. The earthly punishment of departing from God is that we have not where to lay our heads. Every sinner is a fugitive and a vagabond. But if we love God we are still wanderers indeed, but we are ‘pilgrims and sojourners with Thee.’
9. Cain’s remonstrance completes the tragic picture. We see in it despair without penitence. He has no word of confession. If he had accepted his chastisement, and learned by it his sin, all the bitterness would have passed away. But he only writhes in agony, and adds, to the sentence pronounced, terrors of his own devising. God had not forbidden him to come into His presence. But he feels that he dare not venture thither. And he was right; for, whether we suppose that some sensible manifestation of the divine presence is meant by ‘Thy face’ or no, a man who had unrepented sin on his conscience, and murmurings in his heart, could not hold intercourse with God; nor would he wish to do so. Thus we learn again the lesson that sin separates from our Father, and that chastisements, not accepted as signs of His love, build up a black wall between God and us.
Nor had Cain been told that his life was in danger. But his conscience made a coward of him, as of us all, and told him what he deserved. There were, no doubt, many other children of Adam, who would be ready to avenge Abel’s death. The wild justice of revenge is deep in the heart of men; and the natural impulse would be to hunt down the murderer like a wolf. It is a dreadful picture of the defiant and despairing sinner, tortured by well-founded fears, shut out from the presence of God, but not able to shut out thoughts of Him, and seeing an avenger in every man.
We need not ask how God set a mark on Cain. Enough that His doing so was a merciful alleviation of his lot, and teaches us how God’s long-suffering spares life, and tempers judgment, that there may still be space for repentance. If even Cain has gracious protection and mercy blended with his chastisement, who can be beyond the pale of God’s compassion, and with whom will not His loving providence and patient pity labour? No man is so scorched by the fire of retribution, but many a dewy drop from God’s tenderness falls on him. No doubt, the story of the preservation of Cain was meant to restrain the blood-feuds so common and ruinous in early times; and we need the lesson yet, to keep us from vengeance under the mask of justice. But the deepest lesson and truest pathos of it lies in the picture of the watchful kindness of God lingering round the wretched man, like gracious sunshine playing on some scarred and black rock, to win him back by goodness to penitence, and through penitence to peace.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
in process of time. Hebrew. at [the] end of days. The time as well as place and offering probably appointed.
ground. The product of the curse. Compare Gen 3:17.
offering, &c. = a sacrifice unto Jehovah. Most religious, but his own “way” (Jud 1:11); but not first-fruits as Abel’s. Heb, minchah. See App-48.
LORD = Jehovah. Note, the sacrifices both brought to Jehovah as the covenant God; not to Elohim, the Creator. See App-4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Cain
Cain (“acquisition”) is a type of the mere man of the earth. His religion was destitute of any adequate sense of sin, or need of atonement. This religious type is described in 2 Peter 2. Seven things are said of him:
(1) he worships in self-will
(2) is angry with God
(3) refuses to bring a sin offering
(4) murders his brother
(5) lies to God
(6) becomes a vagabond
(7) is, nevertheless, the object of the divine solicitude.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
am 129, bc 3875
in process of time: Heb. at the end of days, Either at the end of the year, or of the week, i.e., on the Sabbath. 1Ki 17:7, Neh 13:6
the fruit: Lev 2:1-11, Num 18:12
Reciprocal: Gen 24:55 – a few days Gen 40:4 – a season Lev 1:2 – If any Lev 2:14 – a meat offering Lev 9:24 – there came a fire Ecc 5:1 – give Mal 2:12 – and him Heb 11:4 – faith Heb 13:15 – the fruit
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Gen 4:3. In process of time After many years, when they were both grown up to mans estate; at some set time, Cain and Abel brought to Adam, as the priest of the family, each of them an offering to the Lord; for which we have reason to think there was a divine appointment given to Adam, as a token of Gods favour, notwithstanding their apostacy.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
4:3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an {c} offering unto the LORD.
(c) This declares that the father instructed his children in the knowledge of God, and also how God gave them sacrifices to signify their salvation, though they were destitute of the ordinance of the tree of life.